The Train Whistle

Imagine you are standing at the station amid the hustle and bustle and then your ears catch a faint sound - are you sure - can it be? Yes, there it is again and clearer than before. You know the train is almost there because you can hear the whistle.

With the text for this past Sunday (again my apologies), we hear the whistle that alerts us that we are almost to the celebration of Christ's death and resurrection. With a different analogy, it is a preview of things to come.

Psalm 130 tells us that there is forgiveness and hope.

A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
(Psa 130:1-8)

You did notice the similar analogy of the watchman waiting for the dawn!

Then in the Old Testament passage of Ezekiel 37:1-14, we have the familiar passage of the dry bones being brought back to life. If there is hope for bones, there is certainly hope for us. This is matched with the Epistle reading from Romans 8:6-11 where we read that it is the Spirit who gives life.

And finally, the Gospel reading of John 11:1-45 gives us the grand preview with the story of the raising of Lazarus - the dead brought back to life - the look ahead to the resurrection of Christ and then through Him our own resurrection from the death of sin and our entrance into eternal life.

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This Sunday, our pastor, Cary Hilliard was back from his trip to Israel, and in keeping with our Lenten theme - deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me - he brought a message on "setting your face to Jerusalem" from Luke 9:51 entitled "A Pilgrim's Progress."

Again, we find that look ahead, that feeling of anticipatiton about what is to occur.

The choir sang a wonderful anthem, "Even the Heavens Are Weeping" by Joseph M. Martin that emphasized both in the text and the music the emotional impact of Christ's sacrifice for us.

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May God bless as we set our faces toward Jerusalem anticipating the great revelation of God's grace, mercy, and love demonstrated through the cross and the empty tomb.

Blessings,
Richard